The Modern Day Idolization of The Celebrity

As human beings, we are created with the utmost fascinating instinct to worship something. In monotheistic religions, the word "idolatry" means to worship something other than God. It is evident in the earliest parts of humanity; people have within them the animalistic desire to look up to something they believe is more than themselves, and give it their relentless attention. The papers and ink of biblical tales sort of gave me the assent to separate my world from the one I was reading. We take in these bigger-than-life stories and truly see it as just that. It just doesn't seem relatable to this modern life.

Time and time again throughout our history, it is proven that we as people worship this transfixing power. This point is evident within the history of kings and queens, whose royalty was celebrated by common folk. We can go all the way back to the biblical times, when Moses went to see God, and the Jewish people quickly forgot of all the miracles that were done in front of them. They went on to worship the Golden Calf rather briskly. This story accurately mirrors modern day- as human beings, we are remorseless in our ability to move our fixation from one person to the next in the blink of an eye. It was only when I became an adult that I realized these stories were frighteningly veracious to the toxic culture of "the celebrity." I am guilty of giving into that glorified delineation myself.

Just as I was reading these educational stories of the ongoing vindication and accurate testament of what makes us human, my days were spent eating up the presentation of people that were put on talk shows in beautiful fabrics and perfect lighting. They are told how to talk, look, sit, and just be. I sat back in my couch in awe as I watched these figures that were displayed on the screen, and just as I separated the historical stories in school (from my reality), I did the same with these painted-to-life people.

More than ever, there is an ongoing psychological fabrication that is continuously being renovated in order to keep us watching. We closely pay attention as celebrities give us a beautiful performance on the screen. We may connect to the character and thank them for it, watch them in interviews where they give charming answers from an internally rehearsed script, and then chaos ensues as we consume their perfection. Let's take it one step further, they are everything we want to be.

As humans, we are constantly driven by our ego, searching to be someone spectacular and admired over. Who wouldn't want to be adored? As we strip away the human from the idol that was made on the screen, we laugh along to their clever jokes and nod along to things they say that we ourselves may have thought of. There have been many times where I have privately agreed of my love for a person I have never met, because they made me feel good about myself. Actors are simply doing their job, yet they are thrown into a system where they are eaten up and chewed out to our liking. When "the celebrity" stops doing what we like, our adoration fizzles out as quickly as our anger takes its place. People furiously type in front of their dim-lit screen, with the most honest parts themselves coming to the surface in those moments in order to tell that person that they despise them.

Just as I have sat countlessly in front of a screen, and felt warmth from being able to relate to that one clip of "the celebrity" saying something I agreed with, I found it uncomfortably strange when I felt a deep dislike towards something they have said that I don't agree with. This is the moment a lightbulb went above my head. I realized one of the scariest parts of being a human being. The most evil parts of human beings reveal itself in these moments where one suddenly feels infuriated over something that doesn’t even matter. Someone we love has done something against our beliefs and now we must retaliate. We hate them. They’ll say something like, 'I never even liked them anyways. I hear so and so is splendid, let’s go fawn over them.' As a society, people truly believe they have the right to pick a person apart if their beliefs don't align with their idol. They foam at the mouth, sharpen their pitchforks, and form a hurdle of similar angry faces as they point at this person with the goal to kill them. It is interesting to see how angry people can get over nothing.

I am guilty of becoming fascinated by a celebrity. I succumb to the image of their charisma, beauty, clever wit, and talent. These were all the things I wanted to be. I did not recognize any of it until I started to notice how obsessive our generation especially is with celebrities. It is only becoming more perilous now that we have social media. Behind the curtain, their is a team of brilliant experts who know, that we as human beings are attracted to this unattainable thing at the very core- and they paint the person into this unending act we don't even care to look into. No one cares. We just eat it up because it looks and feels good. I liked shiny things ever since I was a child.

On the other side of the screen, I truly feel as though "the celebrity" at times can absorb this adoration and get lost in it. When we continuously push those who are famous by screaming we love them and bowing at their knees, it is understandable when some of them eventually throw out their hands for you to lay your lips on. The ego is constantly being tested throughout our lives, and it is our responsibility on both sides to be aware of what we are really doing here. We can't get lost in the temptation of glorification, because if we do we will forget what really matters in this one life we have. That's what I believe, at least.

As a child, I was untouched by society's poisonous grasp and felt completely happy with myself. But I truly believe that as I started to become more enamored by my pure love for films, I quickly got lost in the contrived attraction of the celebrities behind those films, which affected me though I never noticed it. The scariest and most skin-deep presented itself to me. I had a deep desire to attain everything I have seen since I was a little girl. To be beautiful, to never slouch, to always say the right thing, to be loved by everyone, and hated by no one. Suddenly, you're 23 years old and realize that the best parts of yourself have been replaced with the worst.

But this is what being human is. We all have our insecurities and it is perfectly fine to embrace some even. But it is important to notice the difference of what makes you who you are and what makes you someone you don’t like anymore. Most of all, we as human beings need to realize that we are all the same at the end of the day. In a state of nature, we are just people trying to figure out this weird thing called life.

The amalgamation of celebrity culture and social media has brought out all the things that make us human. The viscous nature of many people online, who quickly (and seemingly enjoy to) rip apart any stranger who says something that they don’t agree with should take a closer look at themselves. Those whose lives revolve around who said what and what they wore, must take notice to something that is very simply put as a poison to your state of living. There is a stream of consistency being presented within our history that shows us the complicities of being a human being and the constant tests of our character. We are constantly tugging and pulling between the good and bad within us.